1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a fertilizer dispensing apparatus and more particularly to a fertilizer dispensing apparatus that is adapted to be removably secured to a water source which will adequately and efficiently disperse a solution during each watering of gardens, lawns, or the like, without harming the user or the environment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Throughout the United States, gardening, including garden plants or lawn grass, is becoming one of the fastest growing hobbies. Working on a garden can provide a means of relieving stress while the results of the successful garden can be extremely satisfying as well as aesthetically pleasing.
As every gardener knows, to produce healthy plants or lawn grass, nutrients are needed. Several products are out on the market to enable a gardener to supply nutrients to the plants, lawn grass, or the like. Many of these products consist of a chemical solution in a water soluble solid which can be placed on the soil surrounding the plant or optionally can be mixed with water to produce a solution. In either method, an even distribution is difficult to obtain. The plant or lawn may receive too much fertilizer, inadvertently harming the plant, or too little fertilizer, which will hinder the plant or lawn from thriving as well as not promote effective growth. Additionally, the use of such methods are difficult and awkward to perform and utilize in order to obtain the optimum use of substance for the growing product.
As such, lawn and garden feeding apparatus have been developed for adequately and evenly dispensing a fertilizer solution during each watering. One such device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,937,399 issued to Halley, wherein Halley discloses an apparatus which includes a chamber housing and a solid water soluble capsule. Water is adapted to enter into the chamber via an inlet to dissolve the water soluble solid capsule. Once dissolved, a solution is produced which is adapted to exit the chamber via an outlet. Though this device does alleviate the process of the consumer mixing the chemical solution, this apparatus does not guarantee an even distribution of the chemical solution for adequately feeding a lawn or plants. For example, in Halley, at the start of the process, the solution exiting the outlet will be more concentrated than the solution exiting the outlet at the end of the process. Additionally, there exists the possibility of large non-dissolved particles of the capsule escaping the chamber. These non-dissolved particles may harm, or worse, destroy the lawn or plants.
As seen, none of these previous efforts provide the benefits intended with the present invention. Additionally, prior techniques do not suggest the present inventive combination of component elements as disclosed and claimed herein, such as providing an apparatus which will adequately and efficiently disperse a water based solution without harming the user or the environment. The present invention achieves its intended purposes, objectives and advantages over the prior art device through a new, useful and unobvious combination of component elements, which is simple to use, with the utilization of a minimum number of functioning parts, at a reasonable cost to manufacture, assemble, test and by employing only readily available material.